So someone wanted a job quote on line without seeing the work site first. I told him it was hard to give a quote without seeing the actual work to be done, but, fearing I may lose the bid I gave them a rough estimate and, not surprisingly; I got the job. What I was told however, compared to the job at hand, was a BIG difference.
It looks like at this point I may have under bid myself and now I'm doing a huge job that took most of the day and into the next for a lot less.
No. There was nothing written in stone. Just a friendly verbal agreement was all. He seemed nice enough and again, I didn't want to scare him away and not get the work. So we agreed on a number, but the work detail was more than what met the eye once I got into it.
I was told some things had already been done, yet it turned out they weren't and I had to take over that took a little more than 2 hours into my day. As a matter of fact the job at hand was not something that could be rushed and required attention to detail. It was a good feeling working for what appeared to be nice folks. They seemed very genuine and kind and that gave me a good feeling - let alone them putting their trust in me as I worked all day by myself in their home while the couple attended errands of various sorts.
I decided I best nip this in the bud and ask if it was okay to re-negotiate our verbal agreement on the numbers. Well...to make a long (learning experience) story short, I don't believe I will be getting what I asked for even though the amount is far less than what ANY general contractor would charge.
Odd however, because it was the same guy that was putting his feelers out just 2 weeks prior and I told him what my hourly wage would work out to (I still have the email). So how can he dispute my request?
Well, he did anyway. Turns out he was a former contractor himself and he made his point clear...that I had underestimated myself for the job at hand and he had no problem paying me far less. This guy even went out of his way to text me nasty messages and accuse me of things I didn't do! Wow! I guess you meet all kinds in this racket. C'est la vie.
Moral of this story?
Always have a 'contract' agreed on, signed and dated. I will be doing the latter on my next job. Until then I will live and learn.
Thanks for reading!
It looks like at this point I may have under bid myself and now I'm doing a huge job that took most of the day and into the next for a lot less.
No. There was nothing written in stone. Just a friendly verbal agreement was all. He seemed nice enough and again, I didn't want to scare him away and not get the work. So we agreed on a number, but the work detail was more than what met the eye once I got into it.
I was told some things had already been done, yet it turned out they weren't and I had to take over that took a little more than 2 hours into my day. As a matter of fact the job at hand was not something that could be rushed and required attention to detail. It was a good feeling working for what appeared to be nice folks. They seemed very genuine and kind and that gave me a good feeling - let alone them putting their trust in me as I worked all day by myself in their home while the couple attended errands of various sorts.
I decided I best nip this in the bud and ask if it was okay to re-negotiate our verbal agreement on the numbers. Well...to make a long (learning experience) story short, I don't believe I will be getting what I asked for even though the amount is far less than what ANY general contractor would charge.
Odd however, because it was the same guy that was putting his feelers out just 2 weeks prior and I told him what my hourly wage would work out to (I still have the email). So how can he dispute my request?
Well, he did anyway. Turns out he was a former contractor himself and he made his point clear...that I had underestimated myself for the job at hand and he had no problem paying me far less. This guy even went out of his way to text me nasty messages and accuse me of things I didn't do! Wow! I guess you meet all kinds in this racket. C'est la vie.
Moral of this story?
Always have a 'contract' agreed on, signed and dated. I will be doing the latter on my next job. Until then I will live and learn.
Thanks for reading!
